The Season of Losing Weight for the FoodBeest began on March 6. Its scheduled completion is May 6. Three months. A quarter of a year.

That completion of my Season on the Program is approximately 2½ weeks away. “So, how’re you doing, FoodBeest?” you ask. As of this morning, this FoodBeest has lost 18 lbs against her promise to lose 25. The dressmaker is taking in several pants and skirts by two inches and the FoodBeest has purchased a new pair of pants in a size she hasn’t seen since high school.

Whoopee!

A couple of things about that:

First, this did not happen because the FoodBeest went on a diet. Everyone has been on a diet – you’ve probably been on a diet, Fellow FoodBeest and you may have noticed that it doesn’t guarantee results. This Season of Losing Weight happened inside of Word. The FoodBeest declared the loss of weight to dozens of people. Everyone of them knew me as someone who was losing weight. They supported me. They asked about it.

And who I have been is my word about what went in my mouth and the weight is coming off.

Second, I have not experienced deprivation. If you have been following this for the past several months, you know that we have eaten at some pretty great restaurants and I have eaten some amazing foods. I’ve been to Cafe Spiaggia, Sprout, Next and Lao Sze Chun, among others. The FoodBeest has eaten extraordinarily well. I have also enjoyed my share of fruit of the vine.

And there have been adaptations of many otherwise “verboten” foods, including carnitas. My favorite new one is Skinny Onion Rings. And then some.

There is a blogger who calls herself Hungry Girl who gets credit for the recipe. I just adapted it. It was great. I couldn’t believe how great it was. I don’t even own a frier, but we Americans have a bit of an unhealthy love affair with fried foods.

I love onion rings. And these are not only delicious; they fit right into the eating plan with barely a blip! (A whole recipe is only 1 point!)

Here’s the basic recipe as I adapted it from HG.

Skinny Onion Rings

What You Need to Make Skinny Onion Rings
1 large onion (I used a sweet vidalia)
¼ C egg whites or Egg Beaters
1/4 cup crushed high-fiber cereal (I used Grape-Nuts; the original recipe from HG called for Fiber One)
Salt
Cayenne pepper
Garlic powder

How to Make Skinny Onion Rings
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cut ends off onion, and peel, removing the outer-most layer of onion. Cut onion into 1/2 inch wide slices, and separate them into rings.

Fill a small bowl (just large enough for onion rings to fit in) with egg whites.

Using a blender or food processor, grind cereal to a breadcrumb-like consistency.

Pour crumbs into another small dish. Season to taste with salt, cayenne and garlic powder and mix well.

One by one, coat each ring in egg. Shake off excess. Then put each ring in the seasoned crumbs. Turn and then spoon crumbs on top so that each ring is coated. Place on an oven-safe baking dish sprayed with nonstick spray. Cook for 20-25 minutes, flipping rings over about halfway through. Serves one!

OMG! These were amazing. They were slightly sweet because the onions and the cereal were both sweet. I couldn’t believe they weren’t real deal – fried and fattening.

They were so good that I thought about them all the next day. If onion rings were that good, what about all the other stuff that’s good fried? Whole mushrooms came to mind. And zucchini slices. Like regular bar food.

And then I started to think about shrimp. And oysters! I love fried oysters!

I adapted the recipe above by using a new bowl of egg whites and freshly ground and seasoned cereal for each new item.

And then while I was cooking all those different things, I got a little crazy and even tried some good fresh spring asparagus I had in the fridge.

So here’s how it came out, rated on a scale from 1 – 10
(10 being near-heaven on a plate; 1 being “don’t ever come near me with that stuff again”)

Skinny onion rings – 10
Skinny fried sliced zucchini – 9
Skinny fried whole mushrooms – 8
Skinny fried peeled shrimp – 8
Skinny fried shucked oysters – 6 (they were too wet and the breading didn’t stick well)
Skinny fried asparagus – 2 – just don’t do it.

I think you could fake-fry chicken with this. Or calamari.

Fellow FoodBeest, like you, I love to eat. I know that you could have a great time with this recipe. Let us know what you think. Let us what you’re going to try. And what you think of it.

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